


It's been a long, long time

by emmaswinter



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Fluff, Nightmares, Romance, my tags suck so, the girl from Stark Expo, there's dancing, trainstation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 19:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2281488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmaswinter/pseuds/emmaswinter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky returns to his love after having survived the war. It takes the two of them a while to catch up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's been a long, long time

**New York, October 1945**

There was a woman standing at the train station, waiting. She had come there early in the morning already and sat on one of the benches. After a while she had started pacing alongside the tracks, always staring up at the big clock hanging from the center of the ceiling. Other people and passengers just ignored the woman, just as she did them. She just kept on pacing, wandering around the station. After a few hours she sat back down, staring blankly at the clock as the seconds ticked by, turning slowly into minutes and then hours.

It was half past three in the afternoon when the woman finally woke up from her trance and started paying attention to the incoming trains. A few minutes later she stood up again. She was wearing a pretty but simple thin blue dress even though it was already October and very chilly, but she didn’t even seem to notice the cold, that accentuated her bright blue eyes. Her brown curly hair was neatly pinned up.

At ten to four at last it seemed as if the train she had been waiting for arrived. As it first rolled into the station she stepped forward towards the tracks expectantly, but only seconds later she shied away looking nervous and scared, fidgeting.

So she stood at a distance watching all the other people get off the train, waiting, as it seemed, for someone specific.

After what seemed like forever to her - the platform was nearly deserted by then - a man exited the train that as she saw him made her look as if she had jumped on the inside, whether from joy and excitement or from shock, it was unclear.

When she saw him she just stood there staring at him, as if she couldn’t believe he was really there.

The man she was staring at was handsome, tall with broad shoulders and had short warm brown hair. He was wearing a tidy military uniform and the second he saw her he saw her he started running towards her.

“Emilia!”

Only as she registered her own name the woman looked up at him again, still staring as if she was seeing a ghost. The second he reached her he wrapped his arms around her small frame and she fell against him and started crying, sobbing against his uniform.

“Mia… Mia. shh… I’m here. I’m here now.”

Hearing his voice only started another fit of tears, while still clinging to him tightly, as if she had to make sure he was not going to vanish any second.

Although he was trying to comfort her the best he could she was still crying too hard to say anything. Before speaking to her again he gently put his fingers under her chin, tilting her head up so he could look her straight in the eyes.

“Sh… Emilia, sweetheart. Come on, let’s go home.”

After he took his bags in one hand he draped his other arm around her and pulled her closely to him.

Holding on to another like that they walked the short distance to the apartment they had gotten together after their engagement. That had only been only a few weeks before he had received his marching orders.

When they arrived at home they could hear music playing softly, quietly in the background.

“Oh. I must’ve forgotten to turn off the radio before I left.” were the very first words she said to him and had said all day.

But instead of turning it off she just fell onto the sofa, too emotionally exhausted to think about it any more than to realize that it was still on.

After setting down his bags he joined her, sitting close to her and wrapping his arms around her again. She held on to him just as tightly, as if still worried he wasn’t real.

“Sh, Mia. I’m here. I’m here and I’m not going to leave you again. Never.”

She finally looked up at him, really looking at him, with a hint of a smile on her face. But it disappeared just as quickly again.

“The last letter I got was over a year ago.” Tears welled up in her eyes again. “When there were still no letters, no news after months… I thought you would never come back to me…” the tears started spilling over again now.

“Oh Emilia” He paused and kissed her on the top of her head. “The longer the war went on, the harder transportation became. The majority of the efforts were put into provision, food, ammunitions… Personal notes were kept at a minimum.”

She started speaking again after a pause staring out of the window.

“And then the war was over and for months there was still nothing … I was so scared.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t hear from me sooner. But after we won we had a lot of cleaning up to do. Left over generals, politicians we … needed to get out of the way. We made quite the mess over there.” He offered her a smile at that last comment.

“I’m sorry I took so long.”

She leaned back into him and they sat there in comfortable silence for a few minutes. As a new song started on the still turned on radio, he stood up.

“Come on, dance with me. It’s been so long since we did that.”

She gave him another feeble smile remembering their last time together and  stands up. Holding each other close they gently moved to the music.

“I missed you, James.” He smiled at the mention of his real name, she was the only one who ever called him that. When they had first met she had told it was such a beautiful name she didn't want to let it go to waste.

“I missed you, too. So much. But you don’t have to anymore. You’re not going to get rid of me anytime soon.” he said, with a hint of his old humor.

They fell back into silence just because there was nothing that needed saying, still dancing slowly to the song.

_Never thought that you would be_

_Standing here so close to me_

_There's so much I feel that I should say_

_But words can wait until some other day_

_Kiss me once, then kiss me twice_

_Then kiss me once again_

_It's been a long, long time_

_Haven't felt like this, my dear_

_Since I can't remember when_

_It's been a long, long time_

 

When the song ended he turns off the radio and they stood opposite each other, just taking each other in.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Then, finally, he leaned down and kissed her tenderly, softly, with love.

 

**New York, January 1946**

It had been months since she had gotten the letter and she still had the nightmares.

She called the nightmares not because they were terrible and frightening but because they were horrible to wake up from.

Emilia sat on her bed in the dark for another while just staring at the letter. She couldn’t make out the words but she knew them by heart, anyway.

Killed in action. Her James.

Finally she cried herself back to sleep, still shaking. It was cold, but the cold she felt came from the inside.

When she woke up again it was in the reality of what her life was now, the knowledge that he would never come back to her.

Sometime during the day she heard the song from her dream again and smiled sadly at the last few verses.

_You'll never know how many dreams_

_I've dreamed about you_

_Or just how empty they all seemed without you_

 

**Author's Note:**

> not the first time I've written, but the first time I've actually posted it, so please give me your feedback here or at my tumblr: iciclerogers


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